Necromancer Selene
Vanream helps ghosts settle their affairs so they can move on. But
when breaking the rules gets her in trouble, she’s bumped down to
tracking ghosts trying to avoid the afterlife. Ghosts like Ethan
Lance, who claims he was kicked out of his body when someone else
jumped in. Which might be plausible—if such a thing were possible.
And if Micah, Selene’s partner, didn’t pull her into an
investigation of brutal murders that lead directly back to
Ethan.

But when the whole mess puts Selene’s life in danger,
she suddenly has very personal reasons to get Ethan’s body back.
Between her uncomfortable relationship with Micah, and problems with
her boss, Selene learns just how much trouble it can be when you
don’t follow the rules

Short Excerpt:

I was in a strip club trying to help a
ghost get laid, which was challenging, but not impossible. It was
just extremely taxing on the necromancer extraordinaire (me) who had
to channel energy into the ghost to make her corporeal enough to
entice one of the stripper boys. Technically what I was doing was
illegal, but it was my job to help ghosts settle their affairs so
they could move on to eternally ever after, and Julia’s unfinished
business was that she’d died a virgin. I’d made it as easy as I
could for her by starting at a strip club; if she couldn’t get some
here, I wasn’t sure how much lower I could scrape the barrel.

Julia’s prolonged virginity was an
enigma to me, even though she told me that she’d been waiting for
her soul mate. I just didn’t understand why that meant she couldn’t
hit up a bar, get drunk, and have a fun, regret-filled weekend that
included the walk of shame. At least she’d have been in better
shape once soul mate came around.

“What do you think about him?” I
asked, pointing to one of the three oiled up men who were gyrating
for the benefit of all the screaming women. He had blond hair and
green eyes, and wasn’t overly muscular. Julia looked at him then
quickly looked away. I took that as a sign of approval.

“I think this was a bad idea,” she
stammered.

“This was a fantastic idea,” I
said. “And it will work, don’t worry.”

“No, I mean, I don’t think I can do
this. I waited my whole life for my soul mate and now you want me to
just—” she stole another quick look at the stripper, “I don’t
think I can do this with some random…stripper man. It’s so
indecent.”

I rolled my eyes. “Julia, you’re a
ghost; you no longer have the option of being discerning. And if you
don’t wrap up what’s keeping you around, you run the risk of
turning into a monster. Then it’s an even bigger pain in the ass to
get rid of you. So let’s call our efforts here at Bump and Moan
choice A, and murderous monster choice B. Which choice would you like
to make?”

“A,” Julia said, but she didn’t
sound happy about it. I smiled, and grabbed a couple drinks off the
tray of a passing waitress. I set them down in front of Julia.

“Drink,” I said. “This will
help.”

“I’m a ghost,” she said. “I
thought I was unable to eat or drink.”

“You can feel the effects of the
alcohol since you’ll be working off my energy, so drink up. I’ve
pegged you as a light weight so I think two drinks will be enough.”

“But how is this supposed to help?”
she asked, frowning.

“Because its job is to help,” I
said.

About the Author:

A.J.
Locke is an author and artist, originally from Trinidad, now residing
in New York City. Affairs of the Dead is her debut novel, and other
than writing she enjoys reading, drawing, painting, graphic design,
and watching too much television.